Virtualization at Microsoft continues to evolve! Richard chats with Aidan Finn about the on-going evolution of virtualization and the options available in Azure to use it. It's not just about Azure-hosted virtual machines any more! The conversation ranges over a number of Azure technologies in use today, including Active Directory. You need AD in the cloud to make your hybrid infrastructure work effectively, but it does take time to figure out all the options. Aidan also talks about Microsoft Azure RemoteApp and the options it brings to making applications available in the cloud. Also mentioned is the Azure Speed Test for evaluating which data centers give your location the best performance. The Azure story continues to evolve. Have you checked out the latest?

So how has the Cloud changed Exchange? And how will those changes affect you? Richard talks to Tony Redmond about the on-going evolution of Exchange, primarily through Microsoft's cloud efforts with Office 365. Running Exchange at massive scale has changed the way Microsoft thinks about many of its products. Tony talks about what happens when an organization starts to move mail to the cloud - an obvious move, but it makes you look at a number of practices around email, especially with attachments. How do you share that information effectively without clogging up your mailbox? And, most importantly, how do you change people's habits with email?

So how is IPv6 doing, anyway? Ed Horley knows! Richard chats with Ed about IPv6 adoption. And Ed delivers - turns out there's a lot more going on in the IPv6 world that folks know about. Looking at the stats on World IPv6 Launch, Ed talks about how Comcast has been quietly implementing IPv6 in their DOCSIS3 routers. If you're a Comcast customer, you maybe running IPv6 without even knowing it! The conversation also turns to the cloud providers and their challenges around implementing IPv6. There's lots of little problems, but they are getting solved... 2015 should be an amazing year for IPv6!

Mike O'Neill is back with some free tools you need to know about! Richard chats with Mike about his roster of go-to tools for a Microsoft Premier Field Engineer. All of the tools are free to download and use. Mike starts out talking about The Problem Steps Recorder, a tool that lets you record every keystroke and mouse movement while using an app for playback in a web browser. Next up is a regular on RunAs, Performance Analysis of Logs Tool. PAL analyzes your PerfMon data and shows what are good numbers and bad. And to help you get Exchange PerfMon data, Mike mentions ExPerfWiz, which actually helps you collect the right counters in Exchange. There's a similar tools for SQL Server called SQL Monitor. For Active Directory, check out ADReplStatus, which gives you details on how replication is going in your domain. If you want to visualize your domain, check out Active Directory Topology Diagrammer. For PowerShell, check out Script Browser and Analyzer which comes with some 9000 script samples. Finally, two tools for Office 365, including ID Fix for cleaning up your Office directory structures before moving to the cloud and Office Configuration Analyzer which can identify configuration problems before they bite you. It's a lot of tools for a half hour, but well worth checking out!

Paula is back - with stories of hacking her customer's systems! Richard talks to Paula Januszkiewicz about her work as a penetration tester and what it has revealed about the common vulnerabilities for corporate systems. There are lots of simple things you can do to make your systems less vulnerable - starting with getting patched up! There's a lot of conversation about passwords and account restrictions too, such as making sure that local machine admin accounts do not all have the same password, that service accounts do not allow interactive logins and so on. In Paula's experience, you're always going to get penetrated by some zero-day exploit, so be prepared to defend in depth!

Where did PowerShell come from and where is it going? Richard chats with Principle Software Engineer Lee Holmes about his experiences building PowerShell, going all the way back to 2003/2004 when Jeffrey Snover was trying to convince folks that Monad (the code name for PowerShell) was a good idea! Lee mentions a number of great resources along the way including AutoIt CmdLets and an Overview on PowerShell as a Hosting Solution. The conversation then turns to the future of PowerShell including tools like Desired State Configuration and OneGet. More PowerShell!

How do you look at the potential security threats in your organization? Richard talks to Robert Hurlbut about threat modeling. Robert talks out talking about we all threat model in our day-to-day lives, after all, we put locks on doors and windows for a reason. But when applied to technology, things get more complex. Are you resisting specific attacks or casual hackers? How much security is enough? Robert references the book Threat Modeling by Adam Shostack and the acronym STRIDE: Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information disclosure, Denial of service and Elevation as an approach to planning the overall threat models to your software, systems and organization.

Where is your DevOps practice at? Richard catches up with Gene Kim, the godfather of DevOps, to recap 2014 and talk about what DevOps in 2015 is going to be like. But you can't look into the future without being informed by the past, and Gene points to Puppet Labs 2014 State of DevOps Report as a way to understand the impact DevOps has had so far, and where things are going. The discussion also digs into the DevOps Enterprise Summit held in October 2014, you can see the sessions on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/DOES2014. The DevOps Movement is progressing - are you coming?

How secure is your data? Richard talks to Simon Sabin about securing your databases and making sure you know they're actually secure. The conversation digs into various aspects of security including access control, restricting permissions and effective record keeping. Audits don't have to be the enemy, they're also the best proof that you've protected your data, and help point out when you haven't! With all the stories out in the world about data breaches, isn't it a good time to start really thinking about data security? Check out Simon's SQLBits session about not becoming the next Sony!

Does web performance just mean moving to the cloud today? Richard talks with Scott Forsyth about a variety of web performance strategies. Scott explains that moving to the cloud isn't the panacea that some folks think it is - any more than scaling out a web site ever was. There's still hard work to be done along the way, and it helps to have the tools to actually understand what's going on with your site. At the lowest level, when you have a crashing server, you want DebugDiag. At a higher level, you better have SysInternals in your toolkit too - these are must have tools, and they're free. Gotta talk web for episode 404, and Scott delivers!